End of Term Review
2 December 2015
Please note – the format of the workshop
will differ from this powerpoint
Adam Sandelson
LSE Student Counselling Service
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Aims
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Review progress over the first term
Anticipate future challenges
Practical approaches
Stress management skills
Sources of advice and help
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Part 1
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What progress have
you made in the first
term?
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Initial challenges
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Transition - leaving behind the
familiar and adapting to the new
Coping with loss, after initial
excitement subsides
Meeting new people
Academic challenges
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The Social Side of Settling in
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Making new friends
Meeting people from similar and different
backgrounds
Keeping contact with people from home
Balancing from work and leisure.
Being realistic about what to expect
Give yourself time to adjust
Looking after yourself - food and sleep
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Settling in: The Academic side
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Adjusting to a new level of study
Adjusting to self-directed learning
Trying to keep previous standards
Adjusting reading strategies
Presentations and essays
The tutor relationship
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Academic challenges
Feeling overwhelmed with material
Adapting to a new style of learning
Needing time to develop an
independent critical voice
Anxiety can lead to procrastination
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We may disguise avoidance by being very busy
We may find things to do that are interesting
or even useful, but don't contribute towards
the main goal
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Reviewing expectations
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What were your initial
expectations?
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Social
Cultural
Academic
How has your actual
experience worked out?
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Part 2
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What are the future
work challenges
facing you as a
student?
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Future work challenges
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Sustaining momentum
Academic support
Divergent tutor/ student
expectations
Essays, exams and the
dissertation
Making decisions about the
future – jobs, internships,
PhD’s, location, relationships
Sorting out your whole life in
1 year
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Underlying dynamics
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Trying to please others
Wanting to be the best
Being a perfectionist
The family / historic context for your
success, eg keeping the family together
Setting yourself impossible targets
Re-enacting anxiety, trauma, failure …
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Dynamics of study
Past
relationships
Current
relationships
Relationship
with LSE or
course of study
or tutor or …
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Keeping perfectionism in check
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Perfectionist attitudes can reduce achievement
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They deny you satisfaction and cause you to achieve far less
Perfectionism is undesirable and an illusion!
Experiment with your standards for success: try for
80%
Focus on the process of doing an activity not just the
end result.
Evaluate success in terms of what you accomplished
and whether you enjoyed the task
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Part 3
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What are the
practical ways of
dealing with future
challenges?
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Practical approaches
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Revise and develop your study skills
Time management skills
Realistic and achieveable goals
Short term targets and longer term
strategies
Recognise achievements
Concentrate on the task, not the outcome
Talk to others, ask for help and support
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Focussing on the task
Break down huge activities into
small manageable tasks
Remember past successes you are likely to pass!
Allow time for breaks … space
to breathe … and think
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Mind maps, scribble ideas
Go for a walk, talk out loud
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Part 4
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Review your Stress
Management Skills
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Stress Management Skills
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Physical, behavioural, cognitive
Regularly switch off with some kind of
physical activity
Good self care – sleep, diet, caffeine, alcohol
and nicotine
Allow yourself time out without guilt
Acknowledge anxiety, rather than denying it.
Ask if your negative thoughts are realistic
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Challenging negative thoughts
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Apply ‘Socratic reasoning’ or imagine
this being tested in a Court of Law
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Identify the negative thought
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Eg, I can’t do this Course
Ascertain the evidence For and Against
Ask if you are making a ‘thinking error’
Propose a more reasonable alternative
thought
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Thinking errors
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All or nothing thinking
Discounting the positive/ tunnel vision
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Overgeneralizing
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only seeing the negative side of things
because it happened in the past it will happen
again in the future
Believing a catastrophe will happen
Emotional Reasoning
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If I feel it then it must be true
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Evaluate your approach
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What are the biggest
challenges facing you over
the coming year
Where can you most
usefully improve your
existing work strategies
and coping skills?
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LSE Student Counselling
Service – KSW.507
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Free and confidential
Mainly short term counselling
Book appointments in advance
See Website for
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Stress management handouts
Self help resources
Relaxation MP3’s
Sources of advice and help
Academic Adviser
Disability and Wellbeing Service
TLC study skills advisors
Student Union and Advice Centre
Mental Health and Wellbeing Advisors
Departmental Staff
Student Services Centre
Learning World
Medical Centre
Deans
Don't wait until problems have grown
impossibly large
It’s OK to ask for help earlier
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Forthcoming Groups
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Stress Management Group (3 weeks)
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Self Esteem Group (3 weeks)
Therapy Group
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Places on all groups need to be booked in advance.
Please see the website, Call Ext 3627, visit KSW.507 or email
student.counselling@lse.ac.uk.
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